How to strip very small wires?
 

Here's a good one for the PPOT Brain Trust: For a project I'm working on, I end up stripping the insulation off the ends of a whole bunch of small wires, roughly 22AWG. I'm using a pair of wire stripping pliers I picked up at Home Depot, and they ... work. But it's slow.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1481647653.jpg

I picked up a pair of "auto strippers" from Amazon, and they work much better, as long as the wires are much bigger than the ones I need to strip. I mean, if you're doing 12AWG, these guys work great. I've tried a couple of variants on this theme, both of which claimed to be able to do as small as 22 or 24 gauge wire. One didn't work at all on the small stuff, and the other one actually broke the wire as often as it stripped it. No good.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1481647653.jpg

So what do you guys do when you have to strip a bunch of tiny wires? Any tools that actually *work* for this job?

Thanks,
Dan

I have a pair like the bottom picture but it has an adjustable pinch mechanism on it so you can use it on any size wire.

These cheap ones work also and are adjustable.

https://www.zoro.com/greenlee-adjustable-wire-stripper-cutter-pa1161/i/G5305955/?gclid=CNLRx5_R8dACFQ8lgQodPrIOEQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

Thumbnail for small wires. Or a light tough on a pair of dikes.

These and a lot of patience is how I do it. I tried burning. Didn"t work.

What is this for? Could you use premade breadboard wires?

Buy these. Set them up properly, strip at a slight angle.

Adjustable Stripper / Cutter | Pro'sKit USA

At work? I wouldent use anything but an electric/thermal stripper. The last one I bought was over a decade ago and $300+. There are probably cheapo versions though. No problem to strip 32 gauge wire with ptfe or 8 gauge jumper cables

http://patcoinc.net/images/PTS-10%20in%20hand.JPG

i think you could mimic the thermal stripper method with the back side of an exacto knife and a candle. Just get the blade back hot and press/roll against the wire on a wood block. There will be no damaged strands to cause trouble down the road

Use the one in your first pic, squeeze medium hard. Then remove the insulation with fingers.

I have one like Pic#2 and i can do 18 and 20 with no prob, I dunno.

thumbnail or teeth. Seriously. You can just pull it off...You need tactile feel and tools will just result in cutting the wire.

rjp

Thermal strippers are the way to go, but if you are in an area without electricity or if the cord will get in your way, I've used Stripmaster Ideal (45-097) on wires down to 24 awg with different types of insulation, including teflon coated. They look like the Klein squeeze style in the OP, but have good jaws. The clamp also releases before snapping back in place so you don't damage strands. And if it makes you feel better, these were approved by Boeing for use on GPS satellites.

I bought some inexpensive strippers that automagically adjust for any size wire - got them at a flea market or such. They look/work like this design below. They can strip multiple (same size) wires at the same time - just insert them aside each other and squeeze.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1481651143.JPG

I like the type of the stripper in your first pic... take that back to depot and splurge for the Klien version.
Like this:
https://www.zoro.com/klein-tools-wire-stripper-18-to-10-awg-7-18-in-11055/i/G3181227/

or I like the greenlee stripers

https://www.zoro.com/greenlee-wire-stripper-14-to-6-awg-7-14-in-1956-ss/i/G5302367/

bite it and strip the plastic off. Did lots of that in my youth building models.

Yup

We use this in the CO for stripping 22AWG jumpers. Old school but quick, repeatable and never fails.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1481653418.jpg

I just use my diagonal cutters.

POTS is -48V nominal DC. Goes to -96V ringing. It can bite even if you just brush it at the right time!

Xacto knife held in right hand.

Wire / s in left.

Place wire over blade.

Hold down with right thumb and give a little roll.

Pull wire away with left hand.

Teeth on that size works quick and easy.

Everything from 18 to 4GA i do with this..
 

I fly with these, push cover away with thumb. For working on cars, perfect.: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1481659057.JPG

I'm connecting mini-XLR headers to a PCB. It's a 40khz signal, so it's pretty particular about what kind of wire it likes. I'm using a solid 22 gauge stuff that it likes a lot. I could use premade breadboard wires, if they came in the right specs -- but most of the wires I find are stranded, which seems to screw with the ultrasonic signal. :(

Loving the suggestions! :)

All of you who suggest simple manual methods are right -- I can strip wire with an exacto or my teeth or my thumbnails, it's just time consuming and error prone. The other night, I threw together 3 boards, each of which had 4 mini-XLR jacks, each of which had 4 connectors. So I prepped 48 little bits of wire, which meant repeating the "strip" operation 96 times. Or something like that.

Aschen -- I love the thermal stripper, that makes way more sense than what I'm doing. I suspect even a low cost unit would work great for the scale I'm working with, and couldn't be that expensive. I'll start keeping my eyes open for one.

BleuCamaro -- If you say the StripMaster is a tool that's worked for you, I'll try it. I love the idea of being able to strip cleanly with a single motion without mutilating the wire. My only hesitation is that the StripMaster looks pretty much the same as the two separate ones that I got from Amazon. #hesitant

I give...

Been a tech for around 20 years and never seen anything like that, what is it/how does it work?

That thermal stripper is was cool! Next time we are ordering tools for the shop I will look those up.

Low tech but this process works well for me:

https://youtu.be/n5o2drU65UM

surprisingly they seem pretty cheap on ebay. I might get one for home use. If this is a regular thing for you, i think it would be a worthwile investment. We use them at work for reliabilty issues, we do not want any tool marks on a conductor to enable fatiuge failures.



Teledyne Kinetics TW-1 Stripall Thermal Wire Stripper | eBay

I stared at it for a few min as well. I think the pitchfork thingie strips and it is set to a depth to have the same amount of exposed wire everytime?

I've spent that much on manual wire strippers already. I think next time I have a batch to do -- which will amount to something like 200 wire strip operations -- I'll do the research and get one of those. For $75, it looks like it'll be much faster and easier than the strangled operation I'm doing now, with no risk of damaging the underlying wire.

You could always use your teeth to strip those small wires, just make sure the wire doesn't slip up into your gums and cut into them so far the wire is embedded into the bone!


If that don't make ya shudder, i don't know what will.